Doom metal can be an awfully confusing genre... on one hand, there's your classic
"rocking" doom metal, the funeral-dirge
insomnia-curing drone nonsense, and the death/doom camp. Disembowelment's sole
full-length does a damn good job of
combining the latter two, while increasing the death metal quota. In other words, you
get the crushing, oppressive feel of
drone-doom coupled with the crunch and power of old-school slow death maestro's like
Asphyx and Obituary.
That's not to say this is particularly headbangable. No, it's the sort of thing you
throw on when you wish to be absorbed in a
sickening atmosphere of pure melancholic hate.

"The Tree Of Life And Death" opens things up with a deceptively fast section, with
slashing death metal riffs and a cleaner
guitar passage weaving in and out of drumming which alternates between midpaced
blasting and slower pounding. It gets
a bit weird when the blasts cross over into the clean parts, where it just sounds like
the drummer forgot to slow down, but
that only happens once. The first minute or so continues like this, before the pace
drops down to a sludgy crawl. This
approach continues for the remainder of the song, changing enough to keep one's mind
occupied, but not so much as to
become disjointed. Then "Your Prophetic Throne Of Ivory" kicks off with an atmosphere
so morbidly depressing, weaker
souls will be reaching for the razors within the first 30 seconds. Of course, it speeds
up too, switching things around as much
as the first song. But that first section returns later on, and it's just as amazing
the second time round.

"Excoriate", on the other hand, is mostly a fast, brutal death metal song, which is
then followed by the mellow interlude
"Nightside of Eden", which leads into the second half. Here, the music keeps to a more
streamlined approach, mostly slower
paced and less fractured, with longer songs which allow the listener to sink into the
droning depression of it all. "A Burial At
Ornans" is easily the most impressive song here. Words are really insufficient to
describe this thing, it's just too good to dance
about architure, so I won't even bother.

After nearly an hour, you'll feel physically drained if you pay full attention this
album. It's either an emotionally scouring
experience, or a chore to endure, depending on your personal preferences and mood at
the time. The production, too, is much
rougher than most similar releases at the time - very resonant and murky, as if the
drums and vocals (which consist entirely of a
moaning, inhuman bellow) were recorded in an enormous, echoing cavern while the guitars
were tracked underwater and
filtered through granite. This is especially prominent during the fast section, where
the reverb becomes almost overpowering to
the music itself. This leads to an album that has rightly become a forgotten gem -
couple that with the understated cover and a
band photo that looks like an emo band, and it's obvious Disembowelment were going out
of their way to remain unnoticed
by those who fail to look past the gore-laden artwork and "tough guy" image utilized so
much in the early 90's. Methinks this
is long overdue for a reissue, but I guess Relapse would rather keep churning out a
shitload crappy grindcore, ambient noise
and stoner rock like they've been doing for the last 8 years or so. Ah well... if you
can find this anywhere, and are prepared
for an exceptionally challenging listen, then don't hestitate to pick it up.